Space and time from Science Daily Feed

Astronomers have finally cracked a decades-old mystery about red giant stars—how material from their deep interiors makes its way to the surface. Using cutting-edge supercomputer simulations, researchers discovered that stellar rotation plays a powerful role in mixing elements across a previously unexplained barrier inside the star.

For the first time, scientists have reconstructed the full history of a galaxy outside the Milky Way using chemical clues. By analyzing oxygen across NGC 1365 and comparing it with simulations, they traced its growth over 12 billion years. The findings show how its core formed early while its outer regions were built through repeated mergers. This new approach could transform how astronomers study galaxy evolution.

Astronomers have uncovered surprising evidence of a thick atmosphere surrounding TOI-561 b, a scorching, fast-orbiting rocky planet once thought too extreme to hold onto any gas. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, researchers found the planet is far cooler than expected for a bare rock, hinting at a heat-distributing atmosphere above a churning magma ocean. This strange world—where a year lasts just over 10 hours and one side is locked in eternal daylight—may even be rich in volatile materials, behaving like a “wet lava ball.”

In an incredibly lucky cosmic accident, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope captured a comet breaking apart in real time—something astronomers have long tried and failed to observe. The comet, C/2025 K1 (ATLAS), wasn’t even the original target, but when researchers pivoted to it, they unknowingly caught it mid-disintegration into multiple pieces.

A mysterious spike of platinum buried deep in Greenland’s ice has long fueled theories of a catastrophic comet or asteroid strike 12,800 years ago—possibly triggering a sudden return to icy conditions known as the Younger Dryas. But new research points to a far less dramatic, yet still powerful culprit: volcanic eruptions. Scientists found the platinum signal doesn’t match space debris and actually appeared decades after the cooling began, ruling out an impact as the trigger.

A nearby galaxy is behaving strangely—and now scientists know why. The Small Magellanic Cloud’s stars move in chaotic patterns because it slammed into its larger neighbor millions of years ago. That collision disrupted its structure and even created the illusion that its gas was rotating. The discovery means this once “textbook” galaxy may not be as typical as astronomers believed.

Kepler-51d is a giant, ultra-light “super-puff” planet wrapped in an unusually thick haze that’s blocking scientists from seeing what it’s made of. Observations from JWST revealed that this haze may be one of the largest ever detected, possibly stretching as wide as Earth itself. The planet’s low density and close orbit don’t match existing models of how gas giants form or survive. Now, researchers are left with more questions than answers about how such a strange world came to be.

Astronomers have identified a strange new kind of exoplanet that challenges how scientists classify worlds beyond our Solar System. The planet, L 98-59 d, appears to contain a vast ocean of molten rock beneath its surface that traps large amounts of sulfur deep inside. Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope revealed unusual sulfur-rich gases in its atmosphere and a surprisingly low density for its size.

A mysterious metal-rich asteroid called Psyche has been baffling scientists for over two centuries, and its true origin remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in planetary science. Is it the exposed core of a failed planet, or a chaotic mix of rock and metal forged through countless violent collisions? To find out, researchers simulated how a massive crater near Psyche’s north pole formed, revealing that the asteroid’s internal “porosity” — how much empty space it contains — may hold the key to its secrets.

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details in a bizarre nebula that looks like a brain floating in space. Formed by a dying star, the “Exposed Cranium” nebula shows layered gas and a dark central divide that creates its eerie shape. Webb’s infrared view suggests powerful jets may be shaping the structure. The images capture a brief and dramatic phase in a star’s final evolution.

Astronomers may have found an exciting new clue about dark energy—the mysterious force driving the universe’s accelerating expansion. They discovered an extraordinarily bright supernova from more than 10 billion years ago whose light was bent and magnified by a foreground galaxy, creating multiple images through gravitational lensing. Because the light from each image traveled slightly different paths, it arrived at Earth at different times, letting scientists effectively watch different moments of the same cosmic explosion simultaneously.

Scientists studying a mysterious effect called cosmic birefringence—a subtle twist in the polarization of the universe’s oldest light—have developed a new way to reduce uncertainty in how it’s measured. This faint rotation in the cosmic microwave background could point to entirely new physics, including hidden particles such as axions and clues about dark matter or dark energy.

Astronomers have discovered the brightest fast radio burst ever detected and traced it to a nearby galaxy using a new network of CHIME Outrigger telescopes. The flash, nicknamed RBFLOAT, lasted only a fraction of a second but briefly outshone every other radio source in its galaxy. Follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope spotted a faint infrared signal at the same location. The burst’s unusual behavior—showing no signs of repeating—may challenge current ideas about what causes these mysterious cosmic flashes.

New research suggests Mars may have remained habitable much longer than scientists once thought. Ancient sand dunes in Gale Crater appear to have been soaked by underground water billions of years ago, leaving behind minerals that can preserve signs of life. Even after surface water disappeared, subsurface flows may have created protected environments for microbes. These hidden habitats could be key targets in the ongoing search for past life on Mars.

Mars didn’t always look like the barren world we see today. Over billions of years, the Sun’s solar wind stripped away much of its atmosphere, helping transform it from a warmer, wetter planet into a frozen desert. NASA’s twin-spacecraft ESCAPADE mission aims to watch this process in action by measuring how the solar wind interacts with Mars’ fragile magnetic environment. The findings could reveal how Mars lost its habitability—and help prepare humans for future missions there.

NASA’s Curiosity rover is investigating strange spiderweb-like ridges on Mars that may reveal a hidden chapter of the planet’s watery history. These “boxwork” formations likely formed when groundwater flowed through cracks in the rock, leaving minerals that hardened into ridges while surrounding material eroded away. New chemical analyses of drilled rock samples show minerals linked to water activity.

Scientists have uncovered evidence that our Sun may have traveled across the Milky Way as part of a massive migration of Sun-like stars billions of years ago. The journey may have carried the solar system away from the galaxy’s crowded center into a calmer region where life could eventually emerge.

Gold and other heavy elements are born in some of the universe’s most violent events—but scientists still struggle to understand the nuclear steps that create them. Now, nuclear physicists have uncovered three key discoveries about how unstable atomic nuclei decay during the rapid neutron-capture process, the chain reaction responsible for forging elements like gold and platinum.

Scientists analyzing a gravitational-wave signal have discovered that a neutron star and black hole spiraled together on an oval-shaped orbit just before merging. This unusual motion, detected in the event GW200105, contradicts the long-held expectation that such pairs settle into nearly perfect circles before collision. The eccentric orbit suggests the system likely formed in a chaotic stellar environment with strong gravitational interactions.

Scientists have grown chickpeas in simulated moon soil, offering a promising step toward farming on the lunar surface. Researchers mixed moon-like regolith with worm-produced compost and helpful fungi that protect plants from toxic metals. The combination allowed chickpeas to grow and produce a harvest in soil that normally cannot support plant life. Scientists now need to confirm the crops are safe and nutritious for astronauts.